Spring Birds in Somerset

April evening at Bishop’s Palace, Wells

Pen and her cygnets
Evening light on calm water
Following her home

Three cygnets softly
Surf the moat; silver-rippled
By willow weeping

Early May Bank Holiday

A pair of swallows
Perched on the telephone line
Calling they’ve arrived

 

A crow overhead
Ruffles of black silk flying
In the warm Spring breeze

Swans, Herons and Starlings

Two Swans

Wrapped in sheets of mist

Two swans sleep; waiting for snow

Winter’s white duvet

Two Herons

Mid-air pas de deux

A pair of herons dance by

Encore! Encore! More!

Two Thousand Starlings

Overhead, at dusk

Two thousand wings whispering

This way. This way home.

Herons, Swans and the Somerset Levels

Herons

Waterway clearing

Wading the reedy rhyne mud

Herons pace tractor

Clearing ditch and drain

Dredged up silt slicks and weed sedge

Herons yaw for fish

Swans on the Marshes

Swans on the green sward
As tho' a'sail upon land

Strange sails gathering

Cheddar

Grebes and moorhens dance

Dallying on the bright lake

Look! Reservoir bobs...

Swans in the Snow at Fairmeadow

Slender necks reflect
Swans swimming as snowflakes swirl
White hearts on river

Autumnal Skies

Two river swans fly
White arrows piercing grey skies
This way to the lake

Swans on the river

On silver water

Four soft grey cygnets swimming

While parents swan by